Holly Park Minors remain alive; all sports for July 7

The Holly Park Minor (age 9-10) Little League All-Star Baseball team hoped to reach the final of the District 37 Tournament as it took on Lennox in the losers’ bracket final last Tuesday.

The winner faced unbeaten Westchester in the first round of the championship on Wednesday. If Westchester loses, a second game will be played tonight at 7 p.m. at Carl Nielsen Youth Sports Complex in Westchester.

Holly Park advanced to the losers’ bracket final after defeating Wiseburn from Hawthorne 9-2 on June 25 and Del Rey 16-3 a day later.

Holly Park had its 9-11-year-old all-star squad reach the final but it fell to Del Rey 5-3 on June 28 at Nielsen Park. Holly Park’s Major (age 10-12) team lost to Del Rey in the losers’ final 11-3 on June 25. Del Rey lost the championship to rival Westchester 19-1 a day later. All of these games were also at the Nielsen Complex.

The best Tri Park did was by its seniors. Since Tri Park and Lennox were the only two Little Leagues to have a Senior (age 15-16) division, Tri Park reached the final. On June 17, it fell short of Lennox 10-9 but, a day later, Tri Park had a player shortage and forfeited the other game giving Lennox the title. Lennox began Section 3 play with a 9-2 win over District 25 champion Santa Monica last Saturday at Marine Park in Manhattan Beach.

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Sports Scoop

Dodgers lose dominating Kershaw

By Joe Snyder

Sports Editor

With the loss of top pitcher Zach Greinke to the Arizona Diamondbacks in this past Major League Baseball free agency, the Los Angeles Dodgers Major League Baseball team had to go as far as they could with just one key pitcher, Clayton Kershaw.

The Dodgers already lost three key pitchers to long term injuries and they could not afford to lose Kershaw. The unthinkable happened. After Kershaw’s subpar outing in a 6-1 loss to the host Pittsburgh Pirates, Kershaw, who carried an 11-2 pitching record and L.A. went 14-2 with him pitching, complained about his painful lower back. He left Milwaukee, who the Dodgers had a three-game series with following losing three of four games in Pittsburgh, to have his back examined. He lost his turn last Friday as he is out for, at least 15 days, with a herniated disc in his lower back. In fact, he will, most likely, be out longer.

That left the Dodgers with a weaker staff, although they managed some good performances from Kenta Maeda and Scott Kazmir. They ended up obtaining Bud Norris from the lowly Atlanta Braves (27-53) and it may seem like the ghost of Kershaw shadowed upon him. Norris pitched a two-hit shutout through six innings and struck out eight Colorado Rockies last Friday at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers blanked the Rockies 5-0. That upped the Dodgers’ record to 45-37 as they trail their rival San Francisco Giants (51-31) by six games.

It brings some hope for the Dodgers as they hope Norris will be a good replacement for Kershaw, especially if he is out for a long term; possibly the season. Let’s hope Kershaw will return as soon as possible and lead the Dodgers to a banner year.

Is he worth it?---The Los Angeles Lakers National Basketball Association team made a big move by picking up center Timofey Mozgov from this year’s champion Cleveland Cavaliers. They signed him for four years worth $64 million.

The question is how much he is really worth? He was a second stringer with the Cavaliers, averaging just 6.3 points and 4.4 rebounds a game. Last year with Cleveland, he only made $4.95 million a year.

The Lakers also re-signed Jordan Clarkson on a $50 million, four-year deal.

Unfortunately, the Lakers are not going for the likes of LaBron James nor Kevin Durant. Oklahoma City’s Durant signed with the Golden State Warriors over the weekend.